'Basic liberties' violated, Yale students say about raid on downtown New Haven club (video)

William Kaempffer and Lauren Garrison, Register Staff

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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Ben Schenkel, foreground, a Yale junior from Allentown, Pa., says
he was punched in the face by a New Haven police officer during a
raid at the Elevate Lounge early Saturday. The Yale students behind him say they witnessed the event. (Peter Casolino/Register) less

Ben Schenkel, foreground, a Yale junior from Allentown, Pa., says
he was punched in the face by a New Haven police officer during a
raid at the Elevate Lounge early Saturday. The Yale students behind him say ... more

'Basic liberties' violated, Yale students say about raid on downtown New Haven club (video)

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NEW HAVEN -- Yale University senior Marty Evans already was alarmed by the profanity-laced, heavy-handed police tactics during a raid of a private Yale event at a downtown nightclub club last weekend, he said.

Then, after police piled on a fellow student, used a Taser and arrested him, he said, one officer stood up and aggressively asked the crowd, "Who's next?"

"At that moment, I felt my basic liberties were illusions," he said.

A group of Yale undergraduates stood before reporters Tuesday at Phelps Gate on the campus and gave their versions of Saturday morning's episode, recounting an incident in which they say police, some in SWAT gear, barged into the club, barked orders and profanities and provocatively threatened arrest for anyone who questioned their presence or asked the most basic questions.

The incident at Elevate Lounge on Crown Street at 12:50 a.m. Saturday prompted investigations by both the Police Department and Yale University. There have been allegations that some of the responding officers verbally abused complainant students, threatened arrest if students spoke or took out their phones and, in at least one incident, used a Taser on a Yale football player in the middle of the club dance floor as students, some in tears, looked on.

What exactly happened remains under investigation and there are contradictory accounts. Police said the football player punched and kicked three officers, and police had to shock him with a stun gun to bring him under control.

Evans and other students who were there, however, said the student was "insubordinate to say the least," but was "not at all the aggressor."

The inspection was one of a dozen over the last two weeks as part of a crackdown dubbed "Operation Nightlife," the city's response to a shootout Sept. 19 downtown involving police. No others have generated complaints.

But it was the party Friday night, the "Morse-Stiles screw" sponsored by two Yale residential colleges, that generated the most attention and put the police response under the microscope.

Organizers repeatedly stressed that they share the same goal as police: a vibrant and safe downtown.

Java Wen, who helped plan the event, said it was the actions of certain police officers that "created a situation in which hundreds of people felt extremely unsafe."

The accounts from Yale students came just hours before a downtown safety "summit" downtown at the New Haven Omni Hotel at Yale.

City officials answered questions from club owners upset about the crackdown and some community members wanting to know about the Elevate incident.

Rob Smuts, the city's chief administrative officer, said the episode was under investigation.

Police, he said, are entrusted to carry guns and Tasers and have the ability to take away liberty and there are times that a show of force, including the use of profanity, is appropriate. There are nights downtown, he noted, that officers are outnumbered by clubgoers 10,000 to 10.

At the same time, he assured, "We have to make absolutely sure they are not used inappropriately."

At the downtown meeting, the city also took criticism about "Operation Nightlife" from business owners.

Ronald LoRicco, who owns property at 196-216 Crown St., bristled at the police presence the past two weekends.

"This isn't Beirut. Perception is reality. You did not help these businesspeople bring patrons in. You hurt them. There's got to be some synergy where we can effectively enforce, and I understand they need to be responsible, but you shut the town down for two weeks. And I don't think it's positive," he said.

LoRicco said the enforcement "felt more like an attack against business rather than working with us to try and make this a peaceable environment. I'd like to know if we can expect more of the same perception of a riot environment, because you're chasing patrons away going forward."

Smuts said that in the future, "We will be having stepped up enforcement," though it won't necessarily look like the past two weekends.

Smuts said, "I understand the concerns of feeling like downtown is occupied ... but we have to establish a sense of order downtown."

He said that despite the downtown community expecting the stepped up police enforcement the past two weekends, "The violations that we found blew my mind away. We found clubs that were dramatically over occupancy. We found people continuing to go in with fake IDs."